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One of America’s greatest gothic tales, this Halloween classic takes place in a small New York town on the edge of the forest where whispers of a horrifying ghost are slipping from one person to the next.

Schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, is new to the small town of Sleepy Hollow. It isn’t long before he hears the terrifying rumours of a headless horseman who plagues the town at night. The ghost stories are enough to spook the teacher as he travels home alone through the forest each evening. But ghosts aren’t Crane’s only concern. The teacher has his gold-digging eyes set on the young daughter of Baltus Van Tassel, a very wealthy farmer. He isn’t alone in his quest to win Katrina Van Tassel’s heart, however, and Brom Bones Van Brunt isn’t going to back down without a fight.

One autumn night, Crane is making his way home from a party at the Van Tassel’s house. He isn’t far into the forest before he realises that he has company. Could that horseman in the distance be something supernatural? And is it possible that the round object in his hands is a head?

First published in 1820 in Washington Irving’s The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon collection, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is considered an American literature classic. With themes of mystery, gothic legend and the supernatural, this spooky tale is the perfect ghost story for Halloween.

Read & Co. Classics proudly presents this republished edition of Washington Irving’s timeless tale. This book is the ideal gift for fans of classic ghost stories and lovers of all things spooky.

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	20 août 2018
Nombre de lectures	4
EAN13	9781528785907
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

THE LEGEND of SLEEPY HOLLOW
by
WASHINGTON IRVING

First published in 1820

This edition published by Read Books Ltd. Copyright © 2018 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Contents
Washi ngton Irving
FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KN ICKERBOCKER.
POSTSCRIPT
FOUND IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KN ICKERBOCKER.

Washington Irving
Washington Irving was born in New York City, USA in 1783. One of eleven children born to Scottish-English immigrant parents, Irving was a mischievous and adventurous child who cited Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as an early influence on his character. In his youth, he travelled widely throughout Europe, indulging his love of the arts, before returning to the USA in 1806, where he was called to the bar. However, practicing law never really interested him. Irving turned increasingly to writing, founding a short-lived periodical and writing his first novel, Knickerbocker’s History of New York (1809), which won him much acclaim at home and abroad.
Irving served in the War of 1812, before returning to England to visit his brother in 1815. He remained here for the next seventeen years, travelling widely on the continent once more. Between 1819 and 1820, Irving published his two best-known collections of short stories: The Crayon Papers and The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Contained within these were the famous tales ‘Rip van Winkle’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. These stories were hugely popular in both America and Europe, and Irving soon found himself a literary celebrity, celebrated by authors such as Charles Dickens and Samuel Taylo r Coleridge.
Irving continued to write throughout the next two decades, publishing a number of novels: Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists, A Medley (1822), Tales of a Traveller (1824) (considered by Irving to be his best work), The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828), Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (1829), and Tales of the Alhambra (1832). In 1832 he returned to the USA, purchasing the rural Dutch cottage now known as ‘Sunnyside’. Irving penned a number of further works, including biographies of Oliver Goldsmith and George Washington. He died in 1856 , aged 76.

THE LEGEND of SLEEPY HOLLOW

FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER.
A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, Forever flushing round a summer sky.
CASTLE O F INDOLENCE.
In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market town or rural port, which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform t ranquillity.
I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and was prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this li ttle valley.
From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols.
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and anon seen by the country folk hurrying along in the gloom of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great distance.

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